was a little more I was willing to go for at that time. I do have the 500 S&W in an 8 3/8" Smith. With top end loads, it is a 'Bear' to hang on to. However, 
virtually everything I've put through it shoots well. Hot loads, light loads, cast bullets, jacketed bullets, light or the heavier bullets all do well. It did seem to me though, that the groups did 'start' to open up a little using bullets over 500grs.
True enough. My intro to the 500 was when a friend of mine first got his and invited me to the range for the '1st Cruise'. I've never turned an invite to shoot someone elses ammo . Ammo and components were fairly hard to come by at that time. Another local friend who also had a 500 and is hot & heavy into casting, supplied the test ammo. Basically, a cast 440gr pushed at a velocity of 1000f/sec. My friend stapled a target on the end of a big block of wood and asked me to squeeze off five, from a rest at 25yds. He brought the target back and said he was keeping it. There was one big ragged hole. A convert was born! I thought if it shoots that well, perhaps I 'need' one.
...right up until your retina detaches from the recoil!
at both ends. To my way of thinking, the rubber Hogue type grips it comes with do not help lessen the discomfort effects of heavy recoil. I had a set of Jordon Trooper stocks by Herritt's for a S&W 29 that I modified to fit the 500. When you touch off a 'hot one' now, you still know you have a handful but much improved over the original grips.
